MIRI, March 7: The best solution for Petronas to settle its legal feud with the Sarawak government is to withdraw its suit and find an amicable solution amid the change in government.
Petronas should also allow a consent judgement in the sum of RM1.3 billion in favour of the state government be entered against the national oil corporation, said SUPP secretary-general Datuk Sebastian Ting.
“Now with the change of government, and thus a new boss for Petronas, SUPP would like to suggest that the new boss, the eighth Malaysian prime minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, calls up Petronas for a briefing on the merits of the two on going cases with the Sarawak government.
“SUPP believes the majority of the people of Sarawak would want to see a quick resolution of the above mentioned cases and thus are hoping that the new prime minister will be kinder and fairer to the people of Sarawak compared to the previous Pakatan Harapan government. We await the good news,” he said in a statement.
The Piasau assemblyman was commenting on the Court of Appeal’s unanimous decision to dismiss the appeal by Petronas to recuse Judicial Commissioner Christoper Chin from hearing the Civil Suit brought by the Comptroller of State Sales Tax and Sarawak government to recover RM1.3 billion of unpaid State Sales Tax from Petronas yesterday (March 6).
“Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) express its thanks and congratulating the Sarawak legal team, led by Sarawak Attorney General Datuk Talat Mahmood and Datuk Seri JC Fong, for their great efforts in the preparation and handling the on going two suits with Petronas.”
Ting said SUPP was of the opinion that the perception of the majority of the people of Sarawak is that Petronas was intentionally delaying the actual discussion and argument on the merits of the case proper, and in doing so, intentionally derail the Sarawak budgets passed in the State Legislative Assembly for the year 2019 and 2020.
“These approved budgets are meant for the development of our rural areas and for the people of Sarawak as a whole. Indeed the money must be paid to Sarawak government to develop the state with the primary objective of raising the standard of living of our people,” he continued.
He deemed the previous Pakatan Harapan government as being “unkind” to Sarawak by allowing Petronas to file the first suit against the Sarawak government on June 4, 2018, not even a month after the 14th general election on May 9.
“The majority of the people of Sarawak are fully united with the state government in this legal journey. They are unhappy, disappointed and perhaps even angry with Petronas and more so, with the previous Pakatan Harapan government, for commencing this case,” he alleged. — DayakDaily
